Endzone: Simulated Apocalypse - Chapter 71

– Meanwhile, in the Underground Laboratory –

The first thing Cyanide and Kirika did was run a scan of the place using a combination of [Radar] and Kirika’s aura sensing abilities. They were careful, of course, and watched out for any traps as they silently trotted through the sci-fi and futuristic white corridors of the lab like some sort of space station, illuminated by radiant lights along the top of the walls and separated by automatic sliding doors.

It didn’t take the two long to find their first target—a female-looking mutant wandering around holding some kind of clipboard in her hands. She was wearing a white lab coat—as expected from an Underground Laboratory—but her face was… different, to say the least.

Unlike normal mutants which looked similar to humans, just cyborgified, this one had some kind of purple mask on with a spiraling vortex for a face. It was ominous, yes, but its aura was still more or less the same as any other mutant. The only difference was its movements were more… refined. Rather than lumbering around aimlessly with only blood and flesh in their deranged minds, this one seemed to actually have purpose, and walk like a real, organized human lab worker.

But of course, a mutant was a mutant in the end, and mutants needed to be killed.

After running [Inspect] on the mutant and finding out it was a Stage Two, Cyanide flipped his knife between his fingers, then launched it towards the mutant. The deadly projectile spun in the air as it flew silently towards the unsuspecting cyborg, striking her directly in the back of the head. She staggered momentarily, making weird mechanical sounds, before finally toppling to the ground.

Cyanide opened his palm, and the knife flew back towards him as quickly as it went, landing in his hand handle-first. Then, since his [Radar] skill was on cooldown, after receiving a nod from Kirika (which meant there were no more mutants in the area), the three carefully approached the body. Just because it fell over didn’t mean it was dead. Normally, not being able to run [Inspect] on something meant it was dead, but Cyanide couldn’t be sure of anything in this new world.

Upon closer inspection, however, the duo were able to confirm the mutant truly was done and dusted. It disappeared into shards of light—EXP—for Cyanide, and a series of notifications popped up in front of him momentarily, describing what he received. Most of the items were the same as any other mutant—Metal, Wires, Polyester from the coat, and the like—but there were some peculiar points about this too. For instance…

[Obtained Level One Security Keycard x1.]

“… Oh? What’s this?” Cyanide murmured to himself, arching an eyebrow as he immediately opened his Inventory screen to retrieve the item and look at it. After doing so, Kirika peered in as well, and fell into thought.

“Hm… a keycard, huh? It looks like we’ll be able to access some restricted areas with this, but… if it’s only Level One, then I doubt we’ll get much with this alone. We’ll need to find higher-ranking mutants to drop higher-ranking cards, it would seem.”

Well, she was right, but… Cyanide had a different question in mind.

Why was this place even here?

What was its purpose, and what secrets did it hold? Why was this laboratory set underground, hidden from public eye?

To find those answers, he would need to find those higher-ranking keycards. And so, after pocketing the Level One card for ease of access, Cyanide and Kirika began moving once more.

There was something else peculiar about the mutants in this lab too—when using [Inspect] on them, while everything else was the same compared to other mutants, their names were abnormal. Rather than something like ‘Laboratory Worker Mutant’, they were classified as ‘Haunted Laboratory Mutant’ instead.

It wasn’t just the one he killed just now either—as the duo headed deeper into the laboratory, they came across several more Stage Two mutants just like the first, with a slowly-rotating purple vortex mask for faces. Each time, the two took them down the same way, stealthily and easily. Sometimes Cyanide would use the [Boomerang Knife Throw] skill, sometimes Kirika would execute them from behind. Each time, the mutants fell without breathing a sound, and turned into bright shards of EXP for the two.

They came across many doors, of course, but all of them only housed more mutants inside. There was no time to gather information—not when there were still other mutants on this floor—so the two decided to first clear the place before doing any form of information searching. At least all this killing was worth something—Cyanide leveled up to Level 26, and Kirika to Level 24.

After some exploration, Cyanide and Kirika discovered that the layout of this place was actually quite straight-forward. There was a cylindrical room at the center of the laboratory, with eight corridors all around that led to it. The part Cyanide, Kirika, and Silver fell into from the surface was the end of one of those eight corridors, and from there, they went around the still-inaccessible cylindrical room to explore the other corridors.

Soon, however, they finally found a place where they could access, after killing yet another ‘Haunted’ mutant. It was a door at the end of a different corridor from the one they entered from, and beyond the translucent screen, the two could see four mutants inside. These ones were bigger than the rest encountered here, and had quite the muscular build. Their faces, though, were the same purple vortexes as the others. They did not wear white lab coats, however, and instead bore the outfits of security officers.

“Hm… this is… a security office?” Kirika murmured quietly, peeking through the translucent door. “The text on here says Security Pass Level One Required, so we should be able to enter.”

Cyanide nodded. It made sense even those with only Level One security passes could enter this place if they needed help. Due to being this low underground, there was no signal on phones or any form of radio, so communication had to be done in person like so. If Cyanide had to guess, he would bet there was a security office like this on every floor.

There was just one problem—there were four mutants inside that confined room, each observing different security cameras. If Cyanide and Kirika busted in there now, they would undoubtedly sound an alarm to bring reinforcements. That would defeat the whole purpose of the stealth they had been using all this time, so they needed a different strategy.

“… This is bad,” Kirika muttered, biting her lip. “Eventually, they’ll realize the mutants we took down aren’t walking on any of the cameras. Even if we evaded all the cameras on the way here and made sure to take the mutants down in blind spots as well, these guys aren’t stupid enough to not notice something so simple.”

Cyanide had to agree—waiting here wasn’t going to do them any good. As such, they needed a plan that could isolate the four, right here, right now.

Thankfully, Cyanide, being a professional assassin who always worked solo, was used to having to isolate targets and lure others away from them. He was an expert at this, and his most-used tactic?

Distraction.

Pulling his gun out of its holster, he suddenly pushed it into Kirika’s hand.

“H-Huh? What’s this…?” She whispered in surprise, but knew better than to resist.

“Listen closely,” Cyanide said quietly and darkly. “When I say fire, pull the trigger. The safety is already off, so do not move your finger an inch until I say so. Do not ask questions. Is that clear?”

“…!” Kirika quickly nodded her head obediently, and Cyanide closed his eyes.

“Good. Now… three… two… one…”

Kirika felt her arm being lifted by Cyanide’s hand, aiming the gun for her, and she shut her eyes.

“… Fire.”

She pulled on the trigger.